Communication planning should be an integral part of everyday PR experts’ activities. PR department or corporate communications department have their own function and task, like every other department within the corporation. Therefore, it is necessary to measure the effectiveness of the communication process and its results through theoretically discussed models. Measuring and evaluation enables communication practitioners to prove the value of their activities. In public relations practice, the question - How to measure effectiveness of the public relations program?, is frequently asked.
This paper deals with ways and methods of measuring the effectiveness and its use in practice. Theoretical models, research methods are being considered, also, guidelines are being allocated for the best possible use and implementation of the placed models in the planned communication. Evaluation of the program shows how successful or unsuccessful it is, and it is used for better further planning and creating of the upcoming events. Furthermore, it serves in checking of specific goals, measuring the extent, measuring quality of the message and establishing value ratio of the campaign results with invested funds and expenses. Survey research conducted on a sample of 35 public relations experts, from 35 different corporations in Croatia, showed that measuring the effectiveness of the public relations program in Croatia is still not completely implemented in practice, and as the main reason for non implementing the evaluation, couple of factors stand out, such as shortage of personnel, meaning, small number of employees in corporate communication departments, lack of time and lack of sufficient financial resources that are needed for implementing the research. Results show that during the measuring, the main focus is on media posts, reach and quality of the message. Most often is measured communication and activity on social networks and in traditional media, whereas the least amount of importance is given to the influence on stakeholder attitudes/behaviour changes and measuring the outflow, meaning, impact on tangible/intangible company resources.